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With ran and storms nearby, it was still a nice day in Cincinnati for the Bengals Family Day, where 7,985 fans reportedly were on hand. Players not participating included Andre Smith, Andrew Whitworth, Mike Pollak, Clint Boling, Marvin Jones, Jermaine Gresham, Geno Atkins and AJ McCarron. Jones revealed that he is 'close' to making his camp debut.
The Bengals' first scrimmage was held, though it wasn't fully-padded. As they've done for much of camp - with and without pads - Andy Dalton and Tyler Eifert stole the show. Dalton was accurate, decisive and looking for Eifert often. Unofficially, Dalton completed 17-of-19 passes for over 200 yards and one 'official' TD to Eifert.
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As for Eifert, he caught six passes for over 100 yards and one score, though he had another catch that would have been a score, but the coaches blew the play dead near the goal line. Eifert was beating safeties and linebackers down the seam while also getting behind corners while lined up at receiver.
The Bengals appear to finally be committed to making him a featured weapon in this offense, and not a second-fiddle to Jermaine Gresham like he was as a rookie. The Dalton-to-Eifert hookup is starting to look like a go-to play when AJ Green isn't open. With this string of performances, maybe the Bengals will remember to put Eifert on their depth chart.
The other big winner of the day was fullback Ryan Hewitt. He's continuing to see his reps with the first-team offense, and looks like the 'purest' fullback on the roster. He's putting the coaches in quite a quandary.
Do they continue to work with Orson Charles at H-back, or do they go with a more traditional FB? If they go with the latter, Hewitt looks like the best option, though Nikita Whitlock has also looked good at times.
As far as the losers of the day, the Bengals defense was bad all around. While Dalton and Eifert were shredding a team of mostly backup, the starting defense went against Jason Campbell and mostly backup offensive players. That didn't stop them from having big days.
Colin Lockett, Jeremy Johnson and Connor Vernon all had big plays against the starting secondary. It was a day to forget, but it's not time to sound the alarms just yet. Most of those same guys who were getting torched today have looked great to this point.